The city of Louisville has asked that a former Explorer Scout’s sex-abuse suit against Louisville Metro and the police department be dismissed.

In a motion filed Monday in Jefferson Circuit Court, the city says the suit was filed after the statute of limitations expired and that the city is shielded by sovereign immunity.

The motion filed by Assistant County Attorneys Matt Golden and Lisa Schweickart also says the police department should be dismissed as a defendant because it is a division of the city and cannot be sued.

Other defendants also have asked Judge Judith McDonald Burkman to be dismissed from the suit filed March 8 by N.C., in which he alleges he was sexually abused by officers Brandon Wood and Kenneth Betts.

The city’s motion says that while plaintiffs in Kentucky are allowed five years to file lawsuits if they were abused as minors, that applies only to complaints against the abuser, not third parties such as the city.

The city previously denied the allegation that the department concealed the alleged abuse of N.C. It also said it would not cover potential damages or legal fees awarded against Betts or Woods because it is not responsible for acts by employees committed with "fraud, malice or corruption" or outside the scope of the employee's job.

N.C. alleges in his suit that police officials conspired to conceal the alleged abuse through intimidation and by falsifying reports and destroying or deleting phone records, audio files and other records.

The suit names as a defendant Major Curtis Flaherty, who ran the Explorer program. He also denied wrongdoing and also asked that the suit by thrown out.

McDonald Burkman is considering motions to protect the identity of N.C. and has set a June 30 hearing on motions to dismiss the case.

Betts resigned in 2014, after he was accused in an internal complaint of improper contact with a girl in the Explorer program. Wood was fired last month after he and Betts were indicted – Wood for alleged sexual abuse of N.C. and Betts on charges of sodomy of two others identified only by their initials.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at 502-582-7189 or awolfson@courier-journal.com